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By He Qinglian on December 13, 2015
Source article in Chinese: 履险如夷的郭广昌还能平安否？
This abridged translation first appeared in the Epoch Time on December 28, 2015

The year 2015 was an unlucky one for wealthy tycoons in China. Many government officials and business tycoons were sent to prison or have committed suicide. The lucky ones chose to escape overseas. Among the many pieces of news, the one receiving the most attention was about Guo Guangchang, chairman of the board of Fosun Group. It was first said that he had disappeared, and later reported that he was “assisting in an investigation.” Guo once stated that he and his core team members would never acquire a foreign passport.

By He Qinglian on November 19, 2015
Source article in Chinese: 2015年金融反腐（2）：权力与资本的关系能否重构？
This adapted and abridged translation first appeared in the Epoch Time on November 30, 2015

The Chinese leadership’s recent attempt to save China’s stock market, after its extraordinary meltdown this summer, failed. While key officials of China’s securities industry are being investigated, the big question is whether corruption and insider trading in China’s stock market will really disappear.

Finally China's coming up with a plan to reform the pension system:
the retirement age is to be raised gradually. This article will be
about the key measures of the reform, the reasons the government
intends to initiate this plan and why the public oppose it.

By He Qinglian on September 29, 2015
Source article in Chinese: “李嘉诚话题”突显权力与资本关系日趋紧张
This abridged translation first appeared in the Epoch Time on October 11, 2015

After Hong Kong billionaire Li
Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, recently moved his investments out of
China, state media accused him of being unethical and ungrateful,
fleeing China when the economy was slowing despite having profited
handsomely in better times. He Qinglian, a noted economist, explores the
tensions between power and capital in today’s China.

By He Qinglian on September 19, 2015
Source article in Chinese: 《国企改革方案》的风，姓私还是姓公？
This translation first appeared in ChinaChange on September 30, 2015

A flood of commentary has come out since the release of the long-anticipated Guiding Opinions on Strengthening and Reform of State-Owned Enterprises (《中共中央、国务院关于深化国有企业改革的指导意见》;
“SOE Reform Program” or “Program” hereafter), jointly issued by the
Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council.
Some say that the Program is aimed at expanding and strengthening SOEs,
while others say that the government is using market forces to promote
privatization. That the same plan can yield two radically different
suppositions is due to the Program’s strong “Xi Jinping quality”: It
tries to combine the governance characteristics of both Mao Zedong and
Deng Xiaoping and gain some advantage from both sides, thereby
introducing a whole bunch of mutually contradictory formulations.

By He Qinglian on September 11, 2015
Source article in Chinese: 习奥峰会“咯牙”话题知多少？
This translation first appeared in the Epoch Times on September 14, 2015.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s upcoming state visit to the U.S. has many overseas media speculating on the potential topics to be brought up during the talks with President Barack Obama, from regional tensions caused by Beijing’s activities in the South China Sea, human rights issues, and cyber-attacks.

Recently, the international community finally, and collectively, began to have a pessimistic view of China’s economy. Reasons for their pessimism vary. Some believe that Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign has led to political instability and hence economic recession. Others believe that the Chinese regime’s intervention in the stock market directly caused an economic crisis.

By He Qinglian on June 29, 2015
Source article in Chinese: “革命”的一只鞋已经落地

An alternative version of the article first translated by and published in the Epoch Times on July 7, 2015.

History always makes fun of the wishes of rulers. The last thing rulers want, history would give them just that. Take for example Beijing, the last thing it wants is a revolution, and yet a revolution is looming.

In recent months, having been encouraged by the state, millions of ordinary Chinese have put themselves at risk of losing everything by gambling in the stock market. The catastrophic results are unfolding daily. Actually, since its inception, China’s stock market has been under the control of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that has regarded the market as a kind of “ATM” for filling the coffers of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and lining the pockets of their CEOs, while draining the savings from small speculators.

The seventh round of U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue started when the relationship between the two countries is at the tipping point. Statements from both sides underscored the respective characteristics of their foreign policy: U.S. policy toward China is unstable, whereas China's US policy shows considerable signs of consistency and continuity.

At the turn of the 20th century, China was still an empire, with a small elite at the top controlling the overwhelming majority of wealth and power, and a vast number of peasants on the edge of subsistence. Recently, the Chinese scholar Zi Zhongyun observed: “It’s been 100 years and there’s no improvement—at the top it’s still Cixi, and at the bottom the Boxers.” He was referring to Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled the Qing Dynasty; the Boxers refer to the millions of disenfranchised Chinese who at one point attempted revolution.

A translation of a talk He Qinglian delivered in Vancouver on May 3, 2015.

My talk today, “The New Norm: Chinese economy faces six bottlenecks”, is to give an overview of the state of the Chinese economy. What lies ahead for China depends on whether or not the Chinese government can find ways to work around the six bottlenecks.

The passing of Singapore’s founder Lee Kuan-yew sparked on China’s social media a round of criticism of the “Singapore Model”. Few took notice that the country had long denied the existence of such a model and made its latest denial in February this year. Singapore Roving Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan said in his speech delivered at the Brookings Institution that there was no such thing as a “Singapore model”, Lee and his team improvised many of the country’s policies and that the late leader’s pragmatic governance belief is ingrained in the regime.

By He Qinglian on February 14, 2015
Source article in Chinese: 中国经济逼近悬崖

China’s money supply had a net increase of 11 percent from 2013 to
2014, an increase that is significantly higher than the country’s
economic growth. In 2014 it reached 122.84 trillion yuan (US$18.05
trillion), compared with 110.7 trillion (US$17.71 trillion) by the end
of 2013. Of China’s 12.14 trillion added currency (US$1.94 trillion) in
2014, 9.78 trillion yuan (US$1.56 trillion), over 80 percent, was used
for creating new loans. Not only was it 890 billion (US$142 billion)
higher than that in 2013, but also broke the 2009 record of 9.59
trillion (US$1.53 trillion) by 190 billion (US$30 billion) more.
So much new money was printed. Where did it all go? The majority of
the loans did not flow into the economy, but went into non-production
areas, namely the financial market.

Recently, some American China hands have been airing their views through various channels to express their disappointment with and criticism of Xi Jinping. The wordings of these comments were the sharpest since the period immediately after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989.

Chinese company Alibaba has recently made news headline in China and the US. The fact that the company reconciled with the SAIC (State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the People's Republic of China) over the white paper dispute proved once again that Alibaba's “open sesame” spell is particularly effective, always manages to open doors at critical junctures.

And take a look at how Ma Yun and his company grew over the years, one would find the issues involved are far more than the commonplace problem of government-business collusion in China and they demand deep thinking.